Shrink plastic from your recycle bin, but first, a Friday Smile

I'm going to start with a Friday Smile that I hope Annie at A Stitch in Time and the gang will appreciate.   I have no photos, only the tail (OOPS, TALE), which I swear is true.  Wednesday night, my friend Scott dropped by to see if he could get my speakers working on my computer.  After spending time finding the problem, I asked him to work on my SD Card Reader.  Although he thought it was fixed, sadly, it is not.  Luckily, I'll be able to work around the problem for awhile, at least.

Back to the story, Squiggles was in the office with Scott and me.  I had one of the windows raised, and he was enjoying the fresh air and the bird that was tweeting away in the tree outside the window.  When we went to the kitchen, I made sure he was in the office, because he and Bleubeard are having turf wars at the moment.

I had planned to fix a meal, but Scott insisted on getting fast food not far from my house.  I stayed back and soothed Bleubeard, who then decided to head to the basement.  About that time, the phone rang, and it was Scott telling me he had caught Squiggles, who had somehow gotten out and was across the street.  My heart dropped, because I never wanted him to go outside.  Bleubeard had been born in a barn, and was adept at the outdoors, but Squiggles has been in a pretty antiseptic environment all his life.

Scott brought him in and he headed straight to the office, where he pushed the door open.  Soon, I headed upstairs to see if he was OK.  Without turning on the lights, I heard the worst commotion.  With only the light shining from the kitchen below (the office sits above the attached garage), I saw TWO SQUIGGLES.  Yep, two.  Scott had found the only other cat in the world that looked nearly exactly like him.  When Scott got back, he asked me if I could tell which one was Squiggles, and I said only that Squiggles was the one with the collar.  They looked THAT SIMILAR, if he hadn't been wearing his collar, I might not have been able to tell them apart.  Other than the fact that Squiggles was hissing and using the guttural language that angry, overprotective cats make, that is.  When the other cat was safely outside, I laughed so hard, I had tears in my eyes, and my sides ached.  To me, it was THAT funny.  I hope you can laugh at it too.  I'm sure Annie and the gang will have a few that are funny, too.  But now it's time to do a bit of recycling.

Some of you may have a much larger craft budget than I have.  But even if I had unlimited disposable income, I would still recycle shrink plastic.

Shrink plastic is expensive when you buy it in sheets, but FREE when you grab it from your recycle bin.

Supplies from back:
Large circle punch
Stamp ink, color and type of your choice (preferably solvent or Staz-on)
Plastic from your recycle bin
Stamp of your choice
Heat tool (not shown)

Not all plastic is the same.   For it to be shrink plastic, it must be #6 plastic.  Look for this label embedded in the plastic.  Much of the plastic you get will probably be #1 or #2.  Be sure yours shows the #6.  Mine came from a bakery product I bought nearly a year ago.  Whenever I get food items from a store, I check the number and save all #6 plastic.

Here's what I did.  I placed the plastic in a large circle punch and punched.  Granted, I had to stand on the punch because I have no strength for something that large.

Now that the circle is punched, I grabbed my heat gun and turned it on.   I used a chop stick to hold onto the plastic, because, just like all shrink plastic, it will curl up onto itself and tries to blow away, too.  However, just like all shrink plastic, eventually it flattens out.

That thin piece of plastic has now shrunk 

to one quarter (1/4) its original size.

It's now time to ink your stamp.

After stamping the first one, I realized I needed to use permanent (solvent or Staz-on) ink instead of slow drying pigment ink.  Regardless, you now have a shrink plastic embellishment you can use in your art.  You'll find the ones I made in the Kings and Queens Altered Book I'm making.

Today is Day 3 and I recycled #6 plastic and turned it into shrink plastic art.  I also kept plastic out of the landfill where it takes millennia to disintegrate.